CENTRAL NEW YORK – Big wins early last week helped boost the confidence of the Fayetteville-Manlius and Christian Brothers Academy baseball teams with the Section III playoffs looming.
F-M pulled out a 3-2 decision over Cicero-North Syracuse last Monday afternoon in a game shortened to six innings by rain.
Up against Northstars ace Kaiden Kalfass, the Hornets were kept quiet until the fourth, when it put across a run and carried that momentum over to a two-run fifth inning that proved decisive.
Tom Woodridge had two of F-M’s three hits, the other hit going to Gavin Nicholls, who joined Steve Wratney in the RBI column. Max Werde pitched three innings to earn the win in relief of Danny Swift, the pair limiting C-NS to four hits and overcoming seven walks to pull it out.
Three days later, F-M fell 7-1 to West Genesee, unable to avenge a 10-3 defeat to the Wildcats late in April.
A four-run inning keyed WG’s efforts as it built a 5-0 advantage. Kuss scored the Hornets’ lone run in the sixth, but it was otherwise contained by pitcher Colin Crinnin, who gave up just four hits and also had two RBIs at the plate. Harrison Schwab pitched five innings for F-M and took the loss, with Dylan Friedman seeing a relief stint.
Again, F-M showed its ability to recover, proving quite impressive Friday in a 15-6 win at Baldwinsville, scoring multiple runs in five different innings against four Bees pitchers while racking up 19 hits.
Nolan Merrow had four of those hits, including a home run, and got a team-best three RBIs while scoring five times to set a career mark. Ryan Kleinhans went four-for-five and scored three runs, with Kuss, Schwab, Brian Tonkevich and Anthony Giuffrida earning two RBIs apiece.
All of this elevated F-M to the no. 2 seed for the sectional Class AA playoffs, where it meets no. 7 seed Auburn on Thursday, the winner getting to a semifinal Saturday against Whitesboro or Fulton.
Off for most of the week, CBA flourished in its return last Thursday as it swept a doubleheader from Homer to clinch the OHSL Liberty League 1 regular-season championship.
In the first game, pitching and timely hits produced a 2-0 shutout of the Trojans as Ben Lovell (five innings) and Tom Menar (two innings) struck out 11 between them and allowed six hits, but it took Mike Giamartino’s home run to key a two-run rally in the bottom of the sixth that ended the deadlock.
The second game was different, CBA handling Homer 11-5 as it used three runs in the third inning to erase an early 2-1 deficit and got away with a six-run fifth inning.
Cooper Marko and Ethan Harris got two hits apiece, with Marko and Noah Monsour each driving in two runs. Riley Clemons-Butenko added an RBI as Jack Landau pitched five solid innings, striking out eight, before Hector Gonzalez took over in relief.
Even better for CBA was the power it showed in a 9-3 win over Liverpool on Saturday where it led 5-0 through three innings and saw Giamartino drill two more home runs to give him seven for the season.
Marko also went deep, while Ben Snyder singled and drove in two runs. Clemons-Butenko, Harris and Jack Landau had one RBI apiece as Tim Scholl pitched five solid innings, only giving up two hits.
As it turns out, CBA isn’t done with Liverpool. The no. 4 seed Brothers host the no. 5 seed Warriors in Tuesday’s sectional Class AAA quarterfinal with the winner to get top seed Baldwinsville in Thursday’s semifinal at Auburn’s Falcon Park.
Bishop Grimes struggled last Monday in an 11-1 defeat to Syracuse City, the only team to knock off Jamesville-DeWitt this season.
Jackson Fudge singled home Ben Carroll with the Cobras’ only run in the bottom of the second, but only after Syracuse had built a 5-0 lead. Frank Sgroi took the loss as Grimes got just five hits and, for Syracuse, Gavin Zubrzycki hit a home run and Liam Kisselstein got three RBIs.
A day later, against a Phoenix with an 11-1 record, Grimes took a 5-1 loss, kept quiet by Firebirds ace Ty Corey until Avery Pankow singled and scored in the top of the sixth.
By then, Phoenix had a 5-0 advantage, enough for Corey, who amassed 13 strikeouts and gave up five hits, three of them to Carroll. Tallen Prior had two hits and scored three times to lead the Firebids.
However, Grimes was able to win the rematch with Phoenix 7-2 on Friday afternoon, improving its overall mark to 4-13 as Pankow twice connected for home runs and finished with three RBIs, with Fudge, Dante Piraino and Colin Smith also driving in runs and Tyler Mierek striking out seven in his complete-game effort.
